Back in 2002 or thereabouts, I was on my way to Galena to cover a meeting about U.S. 20. In order to get an interview with U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Springfield, his staff suggested I ride with him in the van they were using. We could talk during the ride from Rockford to Galena, they said.

And so we did talk, some of it for the interview, some not. I talked to him about our Rockford airport, then called Greater Rockford Airport. We’d just lost passenger service, and RFD was being run by a caretaker director who didn’t want to do anything risky, or anything at all except manage the status quo.

I asked Durbin whether he thought he could help the airport. Sure, he said, “but you’ve got to get your act together.” In other words, he let me know clearly that it was up to Rockford to decide what help it needed, and that it was not his job to do that.

Durbin was right. When we did get our act together and decided that the airport would be a job-creation machine for the future, the specific “asks” were made. And Durbin delivered, and delivered, and delivered money for runway, taxiway and terminal improvements, including federal funds for jetways, operations and maintenance.

I know it’s a political year and the senator is in a re-election campaign, but all politics aside, I like to give credit where credit is due. Without Durbin’s clout and considerable work, Monday’s announcement of a massive, jumbo jet maintenance facility could not have been made.

Similarly, Gov. Pat Quinn is in a re-election race. But after a succession of governors who did not seem to care much about the Forest City and the region, Quinn also has been a strong backer of the airport .

I’m not making a political endorsement here — that’s a job for the Editorial Board, where I have one vote out of seven. What I am saying is that Illinois is a “donor” state, meaning we send much more to Washington, D.C., in taxes than we get back. The states that receive much more than they send are, ironically, states in the poor, but anti-government, South.

So, Illinois should get its share back. And the Rockford airport should get its share from the state of Illinois, especially considering that the state is spending millions on converting a cornfield between Beecher and Peotone into an airport that is not needed.

This doesn’t just happen, though. Politics, said Otto Von Bismarck, the first German chancellor, “is the art of the possible.” And it doesn’t happen without relationships with the people in charge in Washington and Springfield. Historically, Rockford has eschewed making these relationships in the mistaken belief that we could do everything ourselves. That meant that while Peoria was getting expressways galore with the help of U.S. Reps. Bob Michel and Ray LaHood, both Republicans, Rockford got very little, because Rockford didn’t ask for much.

Page 2 of 2 - Transportation infrastructure is a basic government function and has been since the beginning of the republic in 1789 (when the Constitution was ratified). But as with anything else, it’s the squeaky wheel that gets the grease.